Honest to Merlin
by brite knee
Summary: Nola is tired of being put second. Teddy&OC. CONTAINS DH SPOILERS. Originally posted on HPFF under the penname amdk.
1. Best Friends

Chapter One - "Best Friends"

"I'm sorry, what's your name again?" a petite brunette girl asked, narrowing her eyes curiously, as she walked out of a nearby corridor.

Nola, who had just been passing by on the way to her common room, rolled her eyes. _If I had a Knut for every time someone asked me that,_ she thought sardonically. "It's Finola – Finola Endicott-Hepburn. A mouthful, I know," she continued, frustrated, wiping her bangs off of her forehead, "and that's why everyone just calls me Nola."

"Oh, right," the girl said indifferently. "Anyway, _Teddy _asked me to give you this." She fluttered her eyelashes at the mere mention of Ted's name and handed over his bag.

Nola took the bag, but looked at it dumbly as one of the shoulder straps dangled from her fingers. "And what am I supposed to do with his school things?"

The girl made a noise of contempt and scoffed. "Take it up to the common room. _Everyone_ knows Teddy has Quidditch practice before dinner!"

"And Ted couldn't take this up to the common room himself?" Nola asked, acutely aware that she hadn't even known her best friend had Quidditch practice.

"He was in a rush, of course, and he couldn't waste his time with such simple tasks as putting away his things!"

"Right. Anyway – wait, what's your name?"

"Libby, Libby Woods. I'm a third year."

"Okay, thanks then, er, Libby."

The third year smiled vacantly in return and left with a twitch of her fingers.

Nola frowned, but shouldered the bag over her own anyway. She knew, of course, that Ted had only had the little twerp of a third year bring her his backpack to annoy her – and it had worked. Combined with her twitchiness around smaller kids and her scorn for assisting other people, it was a foolproof way to slowly drive her insane, an occupation Teddy had taken up since their first train ride to Hogwarts. Yes, definitely his little way of saying "I love making your life miserable." Nola laughed aloud at the thought, frightening a cluster of second year Hufflepuffs walking in front of her. The twelve-year-olds started and turned their heads to stare at her, utilizing an expression so grotesque they might have thought she had contracted a severe case of spattergroit right before their very eyes.

Nola continued on her merry way, sweeping past the second years without a second glance. She loved being an upperclassman.

Several corridors and staircases later she found herself in front of the Fat Lady. "Appleby Arrows."

The Fat Lady grinned roguishly. "They're a shoe-in to win the league this year, you know!" she said, the portrait swinging open.

Nola acknowledged her declaration with a small smile and stepped into the common room, flinching at the harsh level of noise. Kids were scattered all throughout the room, either doing homework or just conversing with their friends. Dodging around a group of fourth years she sunk into a seat in the far corner, throwing her and Teddy's sacks on the floor beside it. "There is no way I'm lugging that upstairs," she mumbled to herself, staring, aggravated, at his bag on the carpet. Nola sat there for a few more minutes, letting the tension in her muscles ease from the stress of her classes. It was just N.E.W.T.s this, N.E.W.T.s that. _Honestly_, the blasted exams weren't until next year!

Realizing everyone was beginning to head off to dinner Nola stood up herself and followed them. As she was coming back out of the portrait hole she zoned in on a small gaggle of fourth year girls (the very ones she had passed to get to her seat in the common room). They were giggling and whispering to each other when Nola distinctly heard the name "Teddy." Listening carefully, she was able to hear more of their conversation as she traipsed lazily behind them.

"He said hi to me today! It was…magical!" one petite brunette said.

"Well, did he say anything else?" another girl asked, outraged. "C'mon, spill, Janie!"

"Er, I don't think so, but does it really matter? I mean, it's obvious he likes me. The only other girl he talks to is that Finniola girl, and she's _definitely_ gay."

Nola snorted loudly. Fourth years were _weird_.

The girls, alerted to her presence, whipped around and gasped dramatically. Their faces plainly read something along the lines of "oh, crap." Nola raised her eyebrows questioningly and they scattered down a corridor to the left.

------

"Hey, B.F.F.!" a boisterous voice said from behind Nola in the Great Hall. She felt the bench creak next to her and she turned to see Teddy sitting there, sweat-drenched and grinning.

"Best friend! You're all…" she trailed off, her lips curling in disgust, and finished rather flatly, "icky."

"So?" he replied, grabbing a roll off of her plate and promptly shoving it into his mouth.

Nola watched as he chewed the bread with his mouth practically wide open. "I'm loving the manners, Ted. Seriously." She was amazed to see how he still managed to grin goofily while eating so much.

They were silent for a few minutes while Teddy continued to stuff his face.

"I heard the gay rumor again today."

Ted froze, his fork full of mashed potatoes halfway to his opened mouth. "Again?" he groaned.

"Again," Nola confirmed.

"Who was it this time?" he asked, dropping his fork onto his plate.

"Some fourth year girls."

"Gryffindor?"

"Yup."

"Hm."

"Yup."

Teddy went back to eating, his eyes narrowed. Out of the corner of her eye, Nola, for the first time, noticed that his hair that day was dark, much like his godfather's, Harry Potter. This slightly worried her – it was usually some flamboyant shade of a more vibrant color.

"Are you okay today?"

"Yeah, 'course, why wouldn't I be?" he asked, borderline snappy.

"I dunno, I was just concerned s'all. No need to get on the defensive."

He smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. Grandma Andy's just been going through one of her spells. Harry sent me a letter a little while ago."

Nola patted his back consolingly, completely at a loss how to be sympathetic – it was not a skill commonly needed around Ted Lupin, and, as such, one that she had never developed. "Christmas break starts next week though!" she said bracingly, trying to steer Teddy from his rapidly declining mood. "Should be fun. And she always gets better once she sees you, doesn't she?"

"I guess." Within a second later her perked right up. "Oh! I forgot to tell you, Ginny and Harry have invited you over for the hols. So are you coming?" He took a second to stuff another roll down his throat, then turned back to her, grinning.

"Oh, yeah, I s'pose so," she replied, smiling idiotically.

"You sure your parents won't mind?"

Nola snorted. "When do they ever?"

"Aw," Ted cooed, throwing his arm around her shoulders. "Is ittle-bittle Nola feeling neglected?"

"Shut up," she muttered and poked him in the side.

He squeaked girlishly, attracting the attention of a nearby group of second year Gryffindors who giggled. Ted, looking to further rouse them, smiled impishly and waved. Two of them nearly fell off of the bench, amazed that _The_ Ted Lupin was acknowledging a bunch of lowly second years.

"Attention whore!" Nola coughed into her napkin.

"I love you too, darling."


	2. Coming Home

Chapter Two – "Coming Home"

"Ted?"

"Hm?"

Nola wrinkled her nose uncomfortably and closed her Transfiguration book. "I think my brain just exploded."

Ted laughed and thumped her on the back of her head. "Nope, sorry, I think it's all in tact." He went back to his essay, his quill scratching away a mile a minute (he had always been weird like that, able to be ridiculously goofy one minute and then the most studious young wizard you have ever met the next; his godfather suspected it was the conflicting genes from his parents trying to fight for dominance). When she made no move to reopen her book and work on her own homework he gave up and threw his quill over his shoulder. "Fine! We'll do this over break."

"Thank Merlin!" Nola squealed, ruffling his now ginger-colored hair. With an elaborate flourish of her wand, her book, parchment, quill, and ink zoomed into her bag.

"Impressive," Ted acknowledged, "but what do we do now?"

In response, Nola shrugged. "You're the 'cool' one, then; why can't you think of anything?"

"And you're the one who didn't want to work on our essays," he grumbled. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to locate my quill." He made to stand up, but Nola pulled him back down.

"There has to be _something_ for us to do. It's the night before the holidays start! C'mon, Teddy, put that fat brain of yours to use."

"You know, I resent that! Is that all I'm useful, Finola Endicott-Hepburn? My unfailing intelligence, wit, charm, and good looks?"

"You forgot your amazing Quidditch skills."

"Good save, B.F.F.!" he said boisterously, patting her on the shoulder. "But anyway—" Ted paused as someone from behind the couch they were situated on tapped his own shoulder. He and Nola turned around to see Molly Weasley, the eldest daughter of Percy Weasley and his wife, Audrey.

"Hey, Molls, what's up?"

"Mail-time," she said, sighing and pulling a thick wad of various folded pieces of parchment from out of her back pocket of her pants.

"Mail? Why? S'not like we won't see everyone tomorrow..." Ted said to Molly, as she flipped through the stack of letters.

She snorted derisively. "Have you suffered a bludger to the head lately, Teddy?"

"Erm, no, I don't believe so. Why?"

"You seem to have forgotten how Ma Weasley is," she stated simply and handed him a letter of his own. She then traipsed across the Gryffindor common room to deliver one to Victoire, her older cousin.

"She has a point."

Ted refrained from acknowledging his friend's fairly astute commentary and opened the letter, scanning it. With a short "hmph," he threw it over the head of three first years and into the fire.

"How bad was it?" Nola questioned sympathetically, leaning towards him without even realizing it.

His hair changed to a startling deep blue. "I've had worse. Just her being overbearing…as usual. It's not like I don't have the whole lot of them breathing down my neck most of the time…" Ted paused, seeming to realize the dull mood that had suddenly descended upon the two of him. In response, his hair changed a sandy brown, mirroring the color of his father's in the pictures that his godfather had given to him. A pleasant grin also took the place of his frown.

Just as he was good at disguising his features, he was also talented with masking his more desolate moods. Nola was experienced in all matters of Teddy Remus Lupin, however, and could tell by the small imperfections in his magical mask that he was feeling at least a little discontented – the ever-so-slight furrowing of his eyebrows, the gentle downward lilt of one corner of his mouth.

"You probably don't want to, but I'm here if you want to talk," Nola insisted. "You know that, right?"

"Are you turning sappy on me?" he groaned, slouching in his seat.

Nola refrained from being offended or, worse yet, hurt; he was just being a stupid boy. And she probably _was_ getting too sentimental with him. She backtracked, attempting to get out of the hole she was digging for herself – she and Teddy had a strict no-mushiness reputation to uphold. "No, I was just, you know—"

Ted leaned over and patted her on the knee. "It's okay. Just don't let it happen again," he said and shook a finger at her in jest.

She offered a tight smile. "I won't."

---- 

Harry met the two on the platform the next afternoon when they got off the train, their trunks already magically-shrunk and stowed away in their pockets.

"Wotcher, Harry!" Ted shouted, drawing the attention of a few parents nearby as they collected their young. The two embraced and Nola ambled towards them through the crowd.

Ted's godfather looked over, saw Nola, and grinned wide. "Miss Endicott-Hepburn," he said (picking on her long, jointed surname was a usual pastime of his), "my kids are more excited to see you than to play with James' new toy broomstick. Frankly, it's a crime. Ginny, though, is especially keen on having another female presence in the house, I think." He drew her to his side for a quick hug and the trio (after pushing a disoriented young Molly Weasley, who had fallen asleep on the train, towards Percy and Aubrey – and successfully evading what would have turned into a lengthy, drab conversation with the latter) Side-Along Apparated away.

They appeared in the middle of a copse of trees, approximately half a mile behind the Potter's newly-built home in Godric's Hollow, which the family had just moved into over the summer. The walk to the house was filled with Harry asking various questions about how the fall semester of their seventh year had gone and Teddy and Nola answering as honestly as they could (while Harry was pretty lenient with Ted as compared with his Grandma Andy, he still frowned upon the young Metamorphmagus causing too much ruckus). 

The three arrived at a fenced-in yard and Harry unlocked the back gate with a tap of his wand. In the enclosure, the two youngest Potter children, Lily and Albus, were _ooh _-ing and _ahh_-ing as they watched their older brother zoom around them on his new toy broom, his toes barely skimming the lofty grass. Harry went in first, followed by Teddy and Nola.

"Daddy!" little Lily squealed, launching herself towards her father. He picked her and spun her around and set her on his hip. Throwing her arms around his neck, she finally spotted her favorite god-brother and her squeals were renewed. "Ted-Ted-Ted!" she chanted, reaching for him over Harry's shoulder. He gave into her request and handed his youngest over.

Albus jumped up at the commotion and ran to Nola, who stooped down to give him a big hug.

James, meanwhile, devoid of any captivated audience members, jumped off his toy broomstick and stamped his right foot into the dirt, kicking up blades of grass. "Hel-_lo_!" he called, evidently aggravated. "Can't you see what I can do? I can fly now and I'm going to be a better seeker than both Dad _and_ Ted!" His declaration was met with a snort of jest and derision from the latter.

"That's not possible, Jamesie," Ted insisted with an exaggerated grin, Lily still clinging to his neck, "because I'm the best there ever was and ever will be."

James Sirius Potter never backed down from a challenge. "Oh, yeah? I'll show you!"

Teddy threw his head back and laughed, his hair changing to a playful turquoise. He handed Lily off to her father (with insistent promises he would play dolls with her soon when she didn't want to let go) and gave chase to James across the lawn.

"Al, why don't you show Nola where your Mum said she was going to be sleeping while she's here."

Nola was towed into the house by Albus' tiny hand latched around her wrist. The décor inside was mismatched but homey, and obviously a mix-up of Ginny's humble up-bringing in the Burrow surrounded by a caring family and Harry's fat wallet. There were various odds and ends everywhere – Ginny's Holyhead Harpies kit hung in a shadowbox on the wall, Harry's trunk from his school days was sitting in a corner, a framed picture of the original Order of the Phoenix sat on one of the coffee tables, the entire family's stockings hung from the mantle over the fireplace (she was also incredibly touched when she noticed two extra stockings: one for her and Ted) – and the effect was that their newly-claimed home looked like they had lived in it for years. She greatly preferred the new house to the original flat that Harry and Ginny had first moved into together when the former had proposed.

"Do you like your new home, Al?" Nola asked as he tugged her up the stairs to the next floor.

He nodded enthusiastically. "'Course I do; I don't have to share a room with James anymore. And Dad even took us to go see the house he lived in when he was a baby. It was really cool." Albus generally wasn't all that talkative, but he seemed genuinely interested in the subject and continued explaining everything about the neighborhood – how there were Muggles that lived around and how they all had to be careful to not do magic in front of them; how the monument in the town square was dedicated to Harry and his parents; and how, while Muggles lived in the area, it was mostly dominated by wizard-folk.

Albus brought her down one of the hallways upstairs, still happily chatting, and stopped at one of the middle doors on the right-hand side.

"This'll be your room," he told her, turning the knob and leading her by the wrist inside.

The guest bedroom was nicely furnished, a queen bed covered by a thick patchwork quilt (no doubt one Ma Weasley's) in the center of the room and opposite of that, against the wall, a wooden dresser. A nice lamp sat on a matching bedside table and there was even a wind-up alarm clock too.

"The bathroom is across the hall," Albus informed her quietly, slipping back to his usual shy personality. But Nola knew he would warm back up to her in a day or so when he got used to her being around.

"Thanks, Al," she said as he shut the door behind him.

Left to her own devices, Nola pulled her shrunken trunk out of her pocket and put it back to its original size, setting it at the foot of the bed. She glanced inside, making sure none of her robes or other clothes had been harmed or wrongly-stretched by the spell (unfortunately, she had experience in the area and it had cost her almost an entire wardrobe one time a few years ago). Seeing that everything appeared to be in its original condition, she shut the trunk and headed downstairs to see what Ginny was up to.

After wandering around downstairs for ten minutes she found the redhead in the kitchen standing in front of the open stove and up to her head in smoke. She waved her hands trying to flap the smoke away rather unsuccessfully.

"Ginny? Everything okay?"

"Er, yeah, everything's fine!" she exclaimed in response, her voice an octave higher than usual, possibly due to the dilemma before her: a blackened roast that she had just pulled out of the oven. "I can just…ugh! I can never seem to get this stupid roast to cook like Mum's! My mum's always turn out perfect and this is a far cry from being anywhere near _edible_."

Nola opened the window above the sink, the better to let the smoke evacuate the kitchen, and joined Ginny by the stove. "I wish I could offer some sort of incredibly helpful advice here, but I'm not domesticated in the least."

Ginny shook her head despondently. "No, I rather think I'm not either. I could do something loads more productive on any Quidditch pitch. But anyway…" She shook off her oven mitts and pulled Nola into a big hug, rocking the teenager from side to side. "It's good to see you again, dear. I was so pleased when Ted said you would spend the hols with us."

"This was much preferred to the alternative. Besides, I would never miss an opportunity to spend time with my favorite Potters."

Ginny motioned her into the adjoined dining room where they both sat down with mugs of steaming hot chocolate. "The alternative?" she questioned. "What're your parents up to?"

"Mum and Pop are off to visit some of his family in Germany. They'll be gone through the new year."

The older woman frowned, a crease in the middle of her brow becoming more defined. "How did a girl as sweet and faithful as you get stuck with such rotten parents?" she asked bluntly, but then put her hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for."

"Oh, no, it really isn't," Nola assured her.

Ginny, she mused, was one of the few people who knew of her poor relationship with her mother and father. She had never been especially close to either of them because neither party involved had ever put forth the effort to get to know one another. They all lived in the same house, sure. But while Nola was busy studying Hogwarts at to become a fine witch, her parents were off travelling who-knew-where for their job (her half-blood mother and Muggle father, the latter of whom was aware of his wife and child's magical-upbringing, took adventurous non-magical folk on group tours of the world's great cities and destinations). To her rather acute memory, Nola could not recall either of them ever asking if she would like to travel with them. It was really just easier for all three of them if they never put forth any effort in erecting or maintaining any sort of relationship. They just accepted it, as they were accustomed to doing.

So while Ginny was, for the most part, aware of Nola's goings-on at home, Teddy had no clue. Sheltered since birth by the presence of a loving grandmother and a devoted extended family, the young Metamorphmagus had no clue that not everyone he met would be so fortunate. Nola thought it kinder to just let him go on believing that, rather than exposing him to the harsh real world, but Ginny severely disagreed.

"I really wish you would just tell Ted," she would insist, and she took the opportunity to do so then. "He's your best friend, Nola. He deserves to know."

"No," she disagreed, as she always had. "Teddy's happier in his little bubble. He knows family and friends and Quidditch and classes and that's all he _needs_ to know right now."

Ginny sighed and gave up her argument, for then at least. "And how's your grandmother doing? Well, I hope?"

Nola nodded, glad for the change of subject. "Yeah, she's doing great. I think I'll Apparate over and see her tomorrow."

Her maternal grandmother, Carol, was Nola's rock. Well-aware of her daughter's horrible approach to motherhood, Carol had made sure to have a strong relationship with her only granddaughter from when she was a baby and they remained unfailingly close to the day. In fact, Nola, when not at school or with the Potters, spent most of her time at her grandmother's modest house in the English countryside, surrounded by a lush garden and gently-sloping hills.

She would go visit her tomorrow. Hopefully that would dissipate the heavy, gray cloud that had descended on her mood after her conversation with Ginny.


	3. Grandmothers and Grief

Chapter Three – "Grandmothers and Grief"

Nola was handed a steaming cup of coffee (she wasn't especially fond of tea) and a plate of cookies the moment she walked into her grandmother's home. She had completed the walk to the house from the Apparition point about half a mile down the dirt road at a brisk pace and the warm mug did wonders to her frozen fingers.

"You should really wear gloves, dear," her grandmother observed, tutting as she shooed her granddaughter into the sitting room where the furnace was turned on high. "I guess I know what to get you for Christmas then, hmm?"

"I didn't expect it to be quite that chilly out, Granny, honest. But I'll take those gloves in grey or red so they'll go nicely with my school kit."

Granny laughed, settling into the cushy settee next to Nola. "I'll get right on that." She took a sip of her own tea. "How is Teddy? Has he been behaving in school?"

"For the most part, yeah," Nola responded. "He has to since he's Quidditch captain."

"That's never stopped him before."

"Hmm, no," she agreed, "it certainly hasn't. I mean, there was that one thing with Professor Longbottom and that teething Fanged Geranium at the start of term, but Ted assured me the bites were minor."

"Oh, my—"

"Er, and there was that, um, _incident_ at the Halloween feast. Teddy thought it would be funny if he dressed up as one of the ghosts. Let's just say that the Bloody Baron was not amused in the least. Plus Ted got beet juice all over my favorite set of sheets – took me _weeks_ to get the stains out."

A beat of silence and then Granny suddenly commented, "You really _are_ infatuated with him, aren't you?"

"What? No. What are you—?"

"That fond look you get when you talk about him, sort of how your mother used to look when she was mooning over your father."

Nola set her now half-empty cup on the coffee table next to the settee, the plate of cookies left untouched in her lap. She tried to take a moment to collect herself, but the effort was rather futile; her right leg, crossed over her right, was jiggling in some unheard rhythm and she tugged incessantly at her cropped hair.

"Darling, you can tell me the truth, you know," Granny said sweetly, leaning towards her. "Merlin knows it's always best to let it out."

When her granddaughter didn't reply, she continued. "I just want you to be happy, Finny," she said softly, leaning over to pat her on the knee. Nola smiled fondly at her grandmother's use of her pet-name; she hadn't heard it in years. "And if that involves falling in love and visiting me less and less each year…So be it, s'long as you're content."

Nola frowned deeply, her brows pulling inward. She recognized Granny's line-of-thought. "Is that what Mum did when she met Dad?"

Her grandmother only nodded in response, fingering a length of hair that had come loose from the knot on the back of her head.

"Gran, I'm not—I'm not going anywhere. You can't get rid of me quite that easily. Even if I did, um, you know, with _Teddy_ – which I really don't think will happen, so don't get your hopes up or anything – even if it did happen, I would never do that to you," she swore. "I could never."

Nola wasn't sure what to attribute Granny's sudden morbidity to. Perhaps it was just the reminder of her own daughter's inefficiency as a mother, off vacationing in Germany while Nola was lodging with the Potters. Or maybe it was just a grandmother thing, becoming sullen around the holidays. Teddy had even mentioned a few times that Grandma Andy was in another one of her funks. In fact, he was visiting with her for the day like Nola, and no doubt she would hear about it later after dinner.

"I don't suppose you've changed your mind about Christmas, have you? I don't fancy you being alone on Christmas day. You and Mrs. Weasley are old school chums; I'm sure she wouldn't mind having you over."

She shook her head. "No, but thank you, dear. Really, I'll be fine. Besides, I've made plans to go into the city for lunch with a few very old friends. Then I think I'll spend the rest of the day huddled by the furnace with a good book and dear old Kimmy, here." Granny's ancient Kneazle raised her head from a pile of fuzzy blankets in the corner of the room and blinked a few times, lazily acknowledging their presence. "Besides, I'll still see you on Christmas Eve, right?"

"Yeah, of course. As long as we're making cookies you know I'll be here," Nola responded.

She had never felt like she had to assure Granny of anything; in fact, it was usually the other way around. The sudden swap unnerved Nola more than she was willing to admit.

They spent the rest of the afternoon in relative peace, eating a late lunch and spoiling Molly with table-scraps and a saucer of milk (the Kneazle turned up her nose at such a shallow offering but, realizing she wasn't going to get anything more, thought better of it and slurped the milk down).

Around five in the afternoon, they said their goodbyes and Nola walked to the Apparition point at a leisurely pace, enjoying the crisp cold air after her grandmother's stuffy home. She felt the familiar pull as she stepped forward and turned, appearing in the woods behind the Potter household.

Inside, Harry was attempting to teach his youngest how to tie her shoes.

"No, no, Lily, like _this_," he said to her, leaning over her sneakers as she sulked on the couch.

"Hey, Harry," Nola greeted, smiling at the cute look of frustration on Lily's face.

"But Daddy, why can't I just keep wearing my Velcro trainers?" she kept imploring.

"Don't you want to be a big girl, Lils?" he reminded, before looking over his shoulder at Nola. "Hey, you. How's your Gran?"

Nola plopped down on the sofa next to the youngest Potter and replied, "She's good, just a bit lonely, I think."

Harry frowned as he corrected Lily's bunny-ears and pushed the corner of his round glasses up with his shoulder. "I'm sure Molly wouldn't mind if she came for Christmas at the Burrow."

"I told her the same thing," Nola responded earnestly, smiling fondly when Lily leaned her sleepy head on her arm. "Why are you home early?"

"Gin came down with a bad headache a little while ago and it's just a paperwork day at the office, so I came home to relieve her from kids duty," he replied, giving up the battle and tugging the shoes off a now-dozing Lily. "I think we'll just do takeout tonight to give her a break; we can wait for Ted to get back before we decide on a place."

Harry pulled Lily up from the sofa, her head lolling on his shoulder. "I'm going to go put her down for a nap. Can you check on the boys in their rooms? They've been awful quiet upstairs."

"Can do." Nola stood up herself as Harry smiled in thanks and went upstairs. She stretched, arching her back and raising her arms to loosen up the muscles that had cramped with inactivity while visiting with her grandmother.

She decided to check on James first; he was much more likely to have gotten himself into some sort of trouble in his isolation. Her mind swam with visions of his impending idiocy as she wandered upstairs and stopped outside of his bedroom. Had he attempted to feed an old sock to his sister's purple pygmy puff again? Had he tried to fly his toy broomstick out his window? Was he still breathing?

She knocked.

"Come in," his muffled voice said from the other side of the door.

Still breathing, then.

Inside, he was lounging on his stomach on the bed, feet crossed in the air, a Quidditch periodical open before him. "Hey, Nola," he said without glancing up, flipping the page to an article on the advantages of being an ambidextrous Beater.

"You're…Merlin, you're up to nothing." She rushed over and pressed the back of her hand up against his forehead briefly before he flinched away. "You don't feel warm. Have you eaten anything funny recently? Taken any tumbles off your broom?"

He grinned at her, raising his eyebrows in an annoying nine-year-old way that only he could manage. "Dunno, you're the one that sees a bit addled in the brain."

Nola narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "And you're not up to anything? Not planning anything to stress your poor parents out or to torment your brother? You've been up here by yourself for what, an hour or two, yet you're sitting here _reading_?" She paused to purse her lips and shake her head emphatically. "Mmm, nope, not buying it."

"What?" he exclaimed indignantly, sitting upright with his feet dangling over the side of his bed. "I'm not doing anything! Everyone always leaves Al alone when he's off in la-la land reading those fat books Aunt Hermione loans him, but I'm not allowed to have some alone time?"

"You do have to admit, James, that you have a tendency to plan mayhem when you're left to your own devices."

"My what?"

"Never mind. Just go back to reading."

Across the hall in his bedroom Albus wasn't doing much of anything either. He looked up from his desk (he was reading one of those "fat books" that his aunt had let him borrow) when she entered. She leaned up against the door frame and crossed her arms before speaking.

"What's your brother up to this time?"

Albus snorted in amusement, a gesture she wasn't accustomed to an eight-year-old using (all the Potter kids had weird tics, apparently; she wondered idly what Lily's was). "Was he reading that Quidditch magazine?"

Nola nodded.

"He probably had one of Uncle George's flyers behind it, if that helps any. Mum caught him trying to order something last week and got annoyed. He must've gotten another one. Believe me, you don't want to see James in that store – he goes completely nuts."

"That's not hard to believe at all," she conceded.

They heard the back door open and close, both times with more force than was necessary.

Albus flinched at the noise. "Is that Teddy? Doesn't seem very happy, does he?"

"No," Nola replied. "No, he doesn't. I'd better go check on him."

She hadn't even reached the stairs before Ted had ascended them, his face flushed and his fists clenched at his side. He glanced at her briefly, shook his head, and stalked into his room, closing the door firmly behind him. The lock clicked and Nola took that as a sign to leave her best friend alone; he would come out and talk about whatever was bothering him when he was ready.

----

"Ted still sulking?" Harry asked at dinner that night, spearing a piece of chicken on the end of his fork.

Lily's head popped up, red hair flying around her face. "Teddy's upset?" she asked, the pout on her face reminiscent of the time when James had disemboweled her favorite Magical Miranda doll (fortunately Witchy Wanda had survived).

Ginny shook her head and gestured to Lily's takeout lo mein that she had barely touched. "No, he's fine. Eat your noodles."

"You don't think it has to do with his grandmother, does it?" Nola asked quietly, turning to Harry.

He pursed his lips and nodded. "I'm sure it does. Andy is…Well, Andy's intentions are good and her heart is in the right place, but sometimes—no, scratch that, _most_ of the time she's delirious with grief."

"Because of her husband and Ted's mom?"

Harry nodded again. He noticed Albus listening attentively to the conversation (while James and Lily flicked bean sprouts at one another), but refrained ending the conversation; Al was bound to hear this sooner or later. "She had two sisters as well."

"Had?"

"Bellatrix and Narcissa. Narcissa's still alive from what I hear; she married into the Malfoy family and both her husband and son were Death Eaters. Bellatrix..." He gritted his teeth and Ginny reached across the table, laying her hand on his. "She also became a Death Eater. Killed Tonks, Ted's mum, during that last battle at Hogwarts. She almost—" Harry's voice broke off. He withdrew his hand from Ginny's and tried to give her an encouraging smile. "She almost killed Ginny; a Killing Curse narrowly missed her. But Molly stepped in, hit her with a curse, and she was killed."

Harry seemed to remember that his children were at the table while he was retelling the story of their mother's almost-death. His forehead creased and he looked abashed, and Ginny had enough sense to shuffle them all out of the dining room and upstairs to get ready for bed.

Nola cleared her throat, finding it hard to make eye-contact with her best friend's godfather, a trouble she had never encountered before. She was learned enough to know that Harry and his friends and family had faced years of tumult and grief (she vaguely recalled that it was the same Bellatrix who had murdered his own godfather); she had read the books, paid attention in History of Magic. However, her own family had remained rather untouched throughout the entirety of both wars against the Lord Voldemort. Her mother, born in Appleby, had been schooled in America as a result of her father's transfer to the American Magical Government. Her parents (who had met in their last year of schooling and were married shortly after graduation) and grandparents had only moved back to the English countryside about a year after the defeat of the Dark Lord when Nola was around one. Her grandfather had passed away shortly after from natural causes.

"Andy took care of Ted after Lupin and Tonks passed away, but I think most of the time it was the other way around once he grew up a bit – him taking care of her," Harry continued, pushing his dinner plate away. "Gin and I actually offered to take him in right after we got married, but she pulled grandmother rank and declined. Said she was doing just find on her own, thank you."

Ginny came back downstairs from putting the kids to bed and started tidying up the dining room. Nola stood to help her, stacking plates and cups.

"But what is it that about her that upsets Ted so much?" she asked while she worked. "What does she do?"

"Andromeda just sulks a lot," Ginny replied before Harry could, balancing a stack of plates on her hip. "She's a bit of a downer. It's understandable, of course, that she should be sad – she was widowed and then shortly after she lost her only daughter. But she really lays it on thick with Teddy. He shouldn't have to bear the burden of her grief. She's a grown woman and she needs to figure it out herself." She paused, her brown eyes cloudy with morose. "Sometimes I just wish she would leave him alone. Especially on the holidays. He's only seventeen; he should just be worried about Quidditch and homework."

Harry grinned, trying to lighten the stifling mood. "I dunno, when I was seventeen I was trying to take down an evil wizard."

Ginny whacked himself playfully on the shoulder and Nola excused herself for bed rather early, citing a headache. She had a lot to think about.


	4. Faire du Shopping

Chapter Four – "Faire du Shopping"

The following day, after what had been dubbed "Teddy's Tantrum," Nola decided an impromptu run to Diagon Alley was in order. She still had a few presents for the Potters to buy and needed to stock up on more newt tails for Slughorn's potions class.

Ted had emerged from the confines of his room around a quarter till eleven, bleary-eyed and quiet. With his black hair (that seemed to have remained a constant for the past few weeks), he seemed to fit in perfectly with his godbrothers and –sister.

Nola was at the oven when he came downstairs into the kitchen making a late brunch of cheesey eggs (Lily's favorite) and French toast (requested by both Al and James). Ginny sat at the table reading the Sunday Prophet and Harry was spending the day in the office to catch up on paperwork.

"Good morning," Ginny greeted as he claimed the chair between Lily and James.

"Morning," he mumbled in return, pulling a glass and a pitcher of pumpkin juice towards him from the center of the table.

Nola dropped a bowl of eggs in front of the youngest Potter and turned back to the oven to mind the toast. "You sure you don't want anything, Gin?"

"No, hun, I'm fine. Thank you, though."

"Ted? You want any French toast?"

His gaze on his glass of juice was strong, almost as if he was trying to boil it (in fact, a few bubbles had popped up along the inside edge of the glass). "Uh…yeah, please."

James snatched up the syrup first as Nola set down a plate each before him and his brother.

"James, share," his mother admonished.

After making a plate for herself and one for Ted, she sat at the table next to Albus and across the table from her stony best friend. She slid his plate of French toast-goodness across to him, which he accepted with a gruff "Thanks."

The entire table sat in silence for a few minutes, the stillness only occasionally stirred by the clinking of forks on plates or Ginny ruffling her newspaper.

The quiet, however, was soon broken by Lily. "_Hey_!" she exclaimed at her eldest brother. "Those are _my_ eggs!"

His fork, which had previously been edging back towards Lily's bowl, stopped in midair, halfway to its target. "Aw, c'mon, Lils," he wheedled. "I'll let you have a bite of mine."

She shook her head emphatically, her mother's defiant attitude shining through. "Mine! Mummy, tell him to stop," she insisted, swatting away his probing fork.

"James, stop," Ginny intoned. It was a familiar phrase for her.

"But Mum—"

Ginny ruffled her _Prophet_ and barely hid a menacing glare behind the paper, effectively ending the feud. Lily learned around Teddy and stuck out her tongue, effectively renewing it. Their godbrother had to separate them as Nola and Al looked on in amusement from across the table.

"Teddy, tell him to stop!" little Lily implored. Ted had always been a sucker for her pout and he promised James a go on his broom if he left his sister alone. The young Potter readily accepted the bribe.

Nola saw that her friend was starting to come out of his funk and extended an invitation to accompany her to Diagon Alley. He hated shopping, but she figured an excursion outside the Potter household would do him good, so she wheedled and begged accordingly and got him to agree with the aggressive assistance of Ginny.

They helped clean the brunch mess in the kitchen, then Floo-ed to the Leaky Cauldron.

Nola stepped out of the emerald flames to see a petite blonde attached to Ted's side.

"Oh, hey, Vic," he was saying, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder.

"Teddy!" she exclaimed, trapping his hand in place with one of her own. "I didn't expect to see you until _Chreez_-mas day at the Burrow." One could never tell when Victoire, the eldest of the Weasley's grandchildren, was faking her slight accent or whether it was really from the influence of her French-bred mother. Her platinum hair and ice-blue eyes, however, did come honestly from Fleur Delacour Weasley.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, me either." He glanced over his shoulder and spotted Nola, choked up with laughter and leaning on the fireplace's mantle to support herself. He glared and nodded his head at the monkey in periwinkle-blue robes hanging onto the edge of his cloak. He hoped she caught the frantic glint in his eyes that was a silent plea for help.

"Oi, Vicky! How are you doing, blondie?"

Apparently she _had_ seen his panic.

Nola had always handled Victoire oddly. They were friendly enough towards one another – no animosity between the two girls existed as far as she was concerned (in fact, Nola got along better with her than Ted ever had). But Victoire (or Vicky, as she had lovingly been dubbed) was so ostentatiously girly and emotional, and Nola took joy in picking on her.

"Nola, hello!" she exclaimed over Ted's shoulder. She pushed him away and grabbed the other girl's hand, wringing it in sheer delight. "I'm so glad I ran into you today. There's this absolutely _dreamy _new assistant in Ollivander's shop. I think he'd be perfect for you."

"Oh, um, that's considerate of you and all, Vicky," she replied, wrenching her hand away, "but I'm not really looking right now."

"What, for wands? No, silly, I'm talking about the new assistant, not the _wands_!"

"No, I know—nevermind."

Teddy looped his arm through his best friend's, gently prying her loose of the blonde's hold. "Good seeing you again, Victoire, even though we see you just about every day at Hogwarts, but Nola and I really need to get some shopping done." They rushed off towards the back room of the Leaky Cauldron, a brief wave goodbye sent over their shoulders.

In Diagon Alley, they started at Flourish and Blotts. They wandered over to the kids section to see if anything stood out for Lily.

"Merlin," breathed Ted, "I thought she was about to lift up her skirt and mark her territory."

Unlike Nola's playful picking on Victoire, Ted had a penchant for being rougher. He had never developed any sense of empathy for other's feelings and emotions and he certainly wasn't about to start now.

"Did you smell that perfume she was drenched in?" he continued, his mug scrunched up in disgust at the smell that was sure to linger on his robes for at least the next few hours. "Ugh, it smelled like that grape cough syrup Danny used to chug at breakfast."

"Aw, leave poor Dan alone. He's prone to getting bad colds." Danny Bunker was a Muggleborn housemate in their year.

"Silly Muggleborns and their Muggle remedies. He'd be better off just going straight to Madame Drewery."

"Ooh, what about this one?" Nola stepped forward and grabbed a thin boxed package off the shelf. It was a how-to kit on how to create little dolls with the supplies necessary included. Upon closer inspection, however, the picture on the front cover looked suspiciously like a voodoo doll. "On second thought…"

Ted laughed, his head thrown back. "Ginny may think very highly of you, but I still don't think giving that to Lily would go over well."

"No," she agreed, "not at all. Lils would have James acting even more of a fool in no time."

They ended up buying a new set of scholarly wizarding encyclopedias for Al ("He'll love these," Nola said. "He's such a weird kid," Ted remarked) and resolved to leave Lily's present until later. They moved onto Weasleys' Wizards Wheezes to look for James.

"Hey, kids!" Ron greeted them when they entered the shop. He was up on the second floor rearranging an old display of Extendable Ears. Teddy started edging towards an open box on the sales counter. "Oi! Step back, Lupin. Don't touch that."

Ted froze in place, hands held aloft in the air in surrender. "What's in the box?"

Ron descended the stairs and pushed the box behind the counter and out of sight with the instep of his foot. "Special ingredient for our new product. George had to order these specifically from Morocco. Anyway, what can I do for you two today? Christmas shopping?"

Nola nodded. "I need something for James that won't make Ginny hex me in my sleep."

"Yeah, she's known for her nasty Bat-Bogey Hexes, my sister is. If you're not looking to get on her bad side, I don't advise our new line of Skiving Snackboxes. Er, let's see…"

Ted moved over to a display in a corner of the shop while Ron eyeballed their shelves of merchandise. "These look good," he said. Nola followed her friend, curious of what had caught his attention.

He was talking about the items that cluttered a small stand, pushed out of the way of the usual joke products. They were a bunch of green ovals that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be miniature-scale Quidditch pitches.

"Should've known that would catch your eye," Ron said to Ted, coming to stand on his other side. "It's not a gag item; I just had them stocked because they looked fun. It comes with all fourteen brooms and a set of balls. Apparently you can play it like chess, one person on each side of the field, but I've been told a lot of captains use them to demonstrate plays and maneuvers."

"Aw, Teddy, we're looking for _James_, not _you_."

"James likes Quidditch," he defended, a scowl on his face.

"And I'm sure you weren't planning on borrowing it from him, right?"

He pursed his lips and mumbled a quick "Shut up."

Nola shouldered him out of the way and grabbed up one of the pitches. "We'll take it, Ron." The two moved over to the register as Ted lingered by the display, staring longingly. "Ted?"

"Yeah?" he replied, tearing himself away to stand by her side.

She handed him a few sickles. "Can you run across the street and pick up a new supply of newt tails for me? I need them for Potions. I'll meet you outside."

"Sure."

Nola nodded her thanks and turned back to Ron. Teddy, meanwhile, headed outside across the cobbled, cluttered road and into the apothecary. He met Nola outside only a few minutes later, a small jar of newt tails in the pocket of his robe and a bulky paper bag hanging off her wrist.

"If it's okay with you, we can just say the Quidditch pitch for James and the encyclopedias for Al are from the both of us."

"That's fine," he said.

"Perfect. That way we only have to buy three more presents – one for Lily, Harry, and Ginny."

They ended up purchasing a set of pretty pea green robes with embroidered floral designs for Lily from Madam Malkin's and then headed down the street to a newly-erected wizarding novelty shop to look around for Harry.

The two hadn't been inside the shop for five minutes when Nola tackled Ted, a handful of fabric clutched with both hands to her chest. "Look!" she practically screeched.

He made to grab what she was holding, but she pulled back and grasped it tighter.

"I can't look if you don't hand it over, Finola," he admonished.

She ignored his jibe. "Are you ready for this?" she questioned, unable to contain a grin of pure delight.

"Yes, now give it here!" he demanded, grabbing her shoulder with one hand and yanking the fabric out of her arms with the other. Ted unfurled the material and felt his jaw drop as he looked at what seemed to be some sort of throw blanket. "Is that…?"

"A super-imposed image of Harry's face on a blanket?" Nola supplied. "Yes!"

He pulled her forward into a lung-crushing hug, the throw squished between them. "It's perfect," he whispered in her ear and she shivered as his breath skirted against the side of her face. "He'll be so bleeding embarrassed."

Nola was the first to pull back, the absence of space between them a little unsettling. "I'm glad you, uh, like it." She patted the back of her hair a tad self-consciously. "Now we only have Ginny left and then we can head back and have some lunch."

"Oh, I've got the perfect idea for Gin."

* * *

Lunch at the Potter household was a subdued affair. Albus was sealed away in his room reading. James was zonked out on the couch in the living room while re-runs from the past year's Quidditch season blared on the television. Ginny and her youngest were upstairs cleaning Lily's room so she could be on Santa's good list. Harry would be at the office for a few more hours yet.

Ted and Nola, meanwhile, were engaged in a captivating silence contest, each lost in their own thoughts. The former's mind was focused on what to get the latter for Christmas, and the latter was wondering if she should have reheated her Chinese leftovers a few seconds more.

With Christmas only a few days away, Teddy knew he was cutting it rather close.

A few times that day while shopping in Diagon Alley, he had managed to slip away and look around for something she might like, but his efforts had been unsuccessful. Even Victoire, who he had run into while picking up Nola's potion supplies for school, was at a loss.

"She isn't, you know, a normal girl, so you can't just get her a subscription to _Witch Weekly_ or jewelry. And she's only into Quidditch when you're playing, so a broom is a no-go," the blonde had told him, one hand perched on her hip and the other wrapped around a tube of top-quality liquefied owl pellets she was considering buying as a "please pass me" gift for Slughorn. "And she gets decent marks, yeah, but she's not a big reader, so no books."

"You're not really helping," he had deadpanned, already regretting asking her opinion.

Victoire had only shrugged in response. She began walking away. "Just ask yourself what really interests her and go from there. You're her closest friend; I'd hope she'd love your gift whatever it was."

What _did_ interest Nola? Ted asked himself.

As a naïve first year, she had aspired to be the school's best athlete, a roll which she quickly found to be dominated by the upperclassmen. When she had barely made it by at broom lessons, she had scratched that aspiration.

Somewhere around the middle of second year, she had gotten the fancy notion in her head that she could be the first female Headmaster of Hogwarts in a century. She took to shadowing Professor Shacklebolt (who had only recently took up the post himself) until around the middle of third year. (The ex-Auror had been more amused by her shadowing than anything and, after leaving Hogwarts to permanently take up the role of Minister of Magic, made it a point to say hello whenever their paths crossed at Weasley family functions he occasionally attended.)

It was in that same third year at Hogwarts that she started taking Care of Magical Creatures with Profressor Hagrid (who gently admonished her when she called him anything but simply Hagrid). She fell in love with the idea of living a dangerous life, domesticating Demiguise and Erumpents and smacking dragons around. That very aspiration had more or less stuck around since then, though over the years it had narrowed down to working specifically as a dragon-keeper. Hagrid had even gone as far as getting her into contact with Charlie Weasley, an older brother of Ron's (Charlie had since become her favorite source of dinner conversation at Weasley family get-togethers).

Okay, so she thought dragons were nifty, but where to go from there? He couldn't exactly get her one as a pet (Hagrid would be far too jealous). He briefly toyed with the idea of getting her a stuffed toy dragon as a gag gift, but shot that down quickly enough; he knew he could do better than that.

A minute and a quick gasp of air later (Nola jumped in her seat at the noise, but quickly went back to her food upon seeing nothing was wrong) Teddy Remus Lupin had a plan.


End file.
